 Welcome back to the original gangsters podcast. I'm Jimmy Bucci Lotto here in my home office with my partner in crime and co-conspirator Scott Bernstein hey now and just want to remind everyone before we get started. Please subscribe to our podcast We have a video channel on YouTube, we also have an audio version that you can find on Spotify Google Apple Etc. And I also want to mention to our audience if you primarily consume our Video channel on YouTube. Just know that we have other audio episodes that were never put up on on the video channel And you may find those interesting. So we've been starting to do that. There's been some confusion We post some of our audio versions on YouTube and people talk about, you know, George Young How could you interview George young from the grave? Some of those episodes are a little bit older. That's why if there's some confusion But then also if you primarily consume the audio podcast Please note that we have video exclusives on the YouTube channel, especially Bernie's quick hitters Most of those we do not put on the audio channel. So you don't want to miss those. So Please, you know consider going back and forth between audio and video if you want to consume all the content So anyhow and follow us on social media, please Instagram Twitter Facebook, etc And we're pretty excited about today's episode. We've been talking about this teasing us for a long time You can tell by my t-shirt that I'm ready to go NWO For life. So this is our finally we're going to do our Wrestling episode where we talk about some crossover Issues between the world of professional wrestling and and organized crime And I think at the heart of this episode is going to be Dino Bravo. So Before we get into to all that Scott, you want to talk about maybe just sort of like Your contemporary reporting how this kind of stimulated this this idea of like, oh, let's finally do this Dino Bravo wrestling organized crime episode so We're gonna be all over the map in this episode. We're gonna be multiple countries multiple eras We're gonna obviously talk a lot about Our early childhood love of professional wrestling and what was the WWF which is now the WWE but for people that have been paying attention to the podcast and a gangster report and to the quick hitters know that we've been given a lot of coverage to what's going on in Buffalo right now with a Racketeering trial about to start it was supposed to start in October It was actually supposed to start back in the summer then it got moved to October now It looks like it's gonna be early 2024 major racketeering drug sex trafficking case against the nephew of the reputed Buffalo mafia Don Joe Tadaro Big Joe his nephew Peter Jiracy junior owner of Pharaoh's strip club in cheek to waga supper above Buffalo and this is really the culmination of a Full-core press by by federal investigators these last five six years going after Joe Tadaro's network and again, I want to clarify and make sure that everybody understands that Big Joe Tadaro that does not have a federal criminal record. He is a multimillionaire by legitimate means by his ownership of the Lenova pizza and wing franchise and He's a very prominent businessman in Western New York But dating back to when he was in his 20s Federal investigators have believed that he is a First they believed he was a member of organized crime in the two of the Magadino crime family They believe in the 1980s. He became under boss and then at some point in the 2000s He became boss according to the federal government. He denies any involvement in mob affairs What we know for sure is that his nephews have gotten caught up Peter Jiracy and his brother Anthony Jiracy both got Nailed in federal drug cases Peter's case is about to go to trial as we said and At least two people with direct connections to the case have died under suspicious circumstances over the last 18 months three people With a connection the third person has a Loose tangential connection two of the people have direct connections. I Know this is a this is a long explanation that eventually it doesn't figure out how we got Dino Bravo But I just want to make sure everybody understands. Yeah, where this is coming from so the star witness who a Stripper at the club who was going to be the star witness in this case died in August FBI is investigating I'll play and my reporting has been able to illuminate the fact that she was Not just close with Peter Jiracy, Jr. The was alleged to have acted as his personal assistant and Sometimes made she also worked at the club But that she was hanging around with Reputed associates possibly members of the Buffalo Mafia and the people that she was hanging around with before she died We're involved heavily in cigarette smuggling and Rackets being run on Indian reservations In upstate New York. This brought us to Dino Bravo Dino Bravo was murdered 30 years ago If you're our age if you're in your 40s, and you follow wrestling in the 80s, you remember Dino Bravo You know, he wasn't a superstar, but he definitely was a star in Canada. He was a superstar and His murder in 1993 was tied to My activity in Canada potentially my activity in Buffalo Some Hells Angels were playing a role in this narrative as well And I didn't really know much about the cigarette smuggling Racket in but you know that This pipeline that was going in between Canada and America and I've learned that it's a Big money maker out there in Western New York in upstate New York and has been for decades and Dino Bravo was kind of smack in the middle of it So, you know, we're gonna kind of go backwards and then maybe It'll call her up with some stuff that's going on now But I think the majority of this episode will be about what was going on in the 80s and 90s with the cigarette smuggling and how Dino Bravo got involved in it and then eventually ended up dead in a gang landslaying Yeah, so let's let's Rewind here and talk about Dino Bravo as as the wrestler first of all because otherwise The fact that he was killed in 93 Mafia associate people might think okay. Well, you know, why is that so interesting? Well the fact because he was a well-known professional wrestler He starts off he's an Italian-Canadian and he starts off as a wrestler in the international wrestling territory Which is out of Montreal And you know now Young people who watch wrestling, you know, WWE pretty much controls everything. There's still a few independence. I think what is it? AEW I think is is one of them. I don't I don't watch There's an extreme I think that's I think that's out of I'm not sure if that still exists, but but back in the day when Scott and I were kids there were multiple territories and Like WWF back then which was WWE now was considered like a northeast territory. You had Mid-South NWA was considered like Georgia And AWA was in Minnesota. It was Minnesota so International wrestling was the Canadian territory and Dino Bravo was a big superstar there and he was wrestling in the WWF And I remember as a kid that he was Booked as the Canadian heavyweight champion, but he didn't really generate a lot of heat And so he he decided to spend most of his time in back in the Canadian territory And this was around the time I guess 86 87 when McMahon really started to just monopolize everything and sort of He started rating those territories bringing all the talent from those independent territories to his company Solidate. Yeah, and so he did that with Canada too And he he signed the Rougeau brothers or the Rougeau brothers Rick Martel Dino Bravo if you're a wrestling fan, you remember those names and I can remember as a kid in Detroit Watching cbc and watching the Canadian wrestling channel or this the show Wrestling show and so when when McMahon signed those guys the Rougeau brothers Dino Bravo I already knew who they were from from watching the independent Shows, yeah, not to digress too much, but also, you know some or at least one iconic ww Effort that came from Canada that we haven't mentioned yet is Stampede wrestling, which was out of Calgary. Yeah, which was the Hart family Oh, yeah, you know Brett the hitman Hart's dad. I believe Was the guy that was the promoter in that part of And and then you know Brett hitman Hart became You know the new Hulk Hogan kind of after Hulk Hogan left WWE for Wcw or NWA whatever it was at the time. It was wcw. Yeah. Yeah the first the first family of wrestling Yep. So, I mean there's always been this you know interwoven fabric between American wrestling and Canadian wrestling and Dino Bravo was You know at the you know really at the epicenter of it when wrestling was becoming Huge, I mean I can I can remember the The difference between wrestling when I first got into it In the early to mid 80s to what it was by the end of that decade I mean it grew leaps and bounds throughout the 1980s to become Way more mainstream than it ever had been before. Yeah. So not only was it more well known You know whether you watched wrestling or not you knew about it and the production value went up And so right I agree with you. It was it was pretty fun to watch it develop and evolve and in real time The crossover with MTV was a real big deal at the time. Oh, yeah Yeah, the the rock and wrestling era which yeah, and and then there was a cartoon like McMahon was the first to understand marketing, right? He had a wrestling cartoon They knew because up until that point wrestling was considered like an adult It was niche it was a niche more But McMahon realized there were kids like Scott and I and he was the one who was like, oh, let's have a cartoon Let's have action figures. Let's have whatever. Let's have ice cream bars and vitamins and it was smart It was all the bars and snacks. Yeah, I got a whole generation of I mean Hulk Hogan, but by 86 87 88 outside of You know Dwight Doc Gooden and magic and Larry Bird and Michael Jordan Joe Montana and John Elway, I mean The Hulk Hogan was right in that orbit. That's how big Hulk Hogan had reached by the the late 80s So, I mean it was controversial because he made the cover of sports illustrated And a lot of people took exception to that because wrestling is not Spoiler it's not real. But at that but at that at that point there there wasn't the full Acknowledgment of that that wasn't until the late 90s where they yeah, right? So, I mean these guys are our athletes and put themselves, you know in harm's way I don't want to but so when I say fake, I mean core choreographed is is what we mean But so there were some people that took exception to Hogan being on the cover of of sports illustrated So, yeah, there's no question that that Hogan was huge and So a guy like dino bravo has a choice in the mid 80s He could take more money and go to Wf But he's going to be a mid carter And he's going to be a heel Which means he's going to be a bad guy Or he can stay in Canada where he can call the shots and he can be a champion and a superstar But he's a big fish in a small pond and he ain't going to make the same kind of money And this was a tough decision for him because I believe he was part owner of international wrestling And he was a booker. He was like the promoter So this was not an easy decision for him But everyone was joining that that's where the money was the rougeau brothers rick martel all these canadian guys the hearts all went to McMahon and wwf And so bravo does the same thing And uh, it was it was a tough Um decision for him not finance financially. It was a good decision But but he wasn't he wasn't the the big man on campus anymore. Well, I believe that he had two stints in In wwf. Yeah, he did his first stint in the late 70s early 80s. I believe he won the tag team championship bell He may have a that's a good question. I don't believe in the in the late 70s. I think he was wwf tag team champion for a second But then by to your point then by the late 80s He returns He's changed some of his image you could see in the picture we flashed. He had he died his hair blonde Right, um and became a heel and became like part of bobby heenan or jimmy I think jimmy hart jimmy hart, uh, I think he he was managed by both those guys who were kind of bad guy Johnny luscious, johnny. Johnny luscious. Yeah, right at the very beginning and then frenchy martin was his manager He had quite a few. He wasn't quite a few stables Let's people let's now let's people Now let's let people Understand what his background was outside of russia Yeah, so his his real name is i mean It's um, he was italian italian a canadian guy and I think his uh last name is uh brusciano Adolfo brusciano right and so he is uh, he happens to be Related to a very prominent organized crime family in montreal, which is the katroni family So we've we've been geeking out on wrestling if you don't follow wrestling, but you listen to our podcast regularly You probably recognize the katroni name. Uh, that is a very uh, like mafia royalty in in in montreal saying in montreal saying katroni It's like saying gambino or genovese in new york Yeah, and I didn't I didn't know any of this when we were kids watching, you know, probably Why would we I had no idea that his uncle? was Vic katroni who was for all intent and purpose the mafia boss of Montreal and I think it's important to Get into the weeds here and point out that I say for all intent and purpose because that was not his official Rank uh, at that point montreal was part of the banano crime family out of new york and um, initially katroni was like the shot caller, but then joe banano dispatch's karmine karmine galante in the in the 1950s to basically colonize Montreal you think that's an accurate yes, and The the process is Making contact with with vik katroni. His real name was vincent, but he went by uh, vik Or was it vittorio? Vincenzo went by vik. He was actually a professional wrestler. Yeah, that's right in his earlier days went by vik vincent. I believe Um, they his nickname in the underworld was the egg. No one really knows exactly where that came from, but uh vik katroni was a big part of this banano great White north expansion It was go to montreal plan a flag and get vik katroni and all his guys to come underneath your umbrella And that's what galante did and for a couple years there galante was living in montreal And he you know, they were They were each other's shadows. You couldn't see galante without seeing katroni. You couldn't see katroni without seeing galante Yeah, my understanding is that it was a pretty peaceful amicable merger Um, this was uh, maybe a parallel to our westy's episode the other day with jimmy coon and and the gambinos I don't I don't think katroni was there was any resistance. I think he recognized. He liked it I think he liked it big opportunity for them. It was joe banano. Who was one of the original new york godfathers coming And stamping a uh, you know authenticity factor there or uh, this guy's for real He's not just a he's not just a big deal in canada. He worked for us Right. So I I think there wasn't a lot of resistance there So and I think he embraced it. So he becomes his official title is is a capo de china. He's a captain And but you know, keep in mind montreal all there's some distance between montreal and new york So I think what we say all intent and purpose prime boss Um, he had more juice than your average captain. I would say in the bananos because You know, he's he's left alone for the most part unlike Unlike some of the other captains who are, you know directly under the thumb of the administration and in york in terms of personality You know you research him He was known as a pretty vicious guy that that Enjoyed violence um Wasn't someone that used Violence, you know deliberately or cautiously, you know, it was the answer to anything and everything um He was somebody that fear definitely feared. Yeah, and I uh, I caught a wiretap of him when I was doing my research And I thought this little anecdote kind of sums him up there was a This actually it was a case that made it to court in toronto Where there was a shakedown of a stockbroker jewer stockbroker in toronto in the 70s and johnny papalia johnny pops who was the buffalo mobs canadian capo um He was shaking down the stockbroker using big katroni's name I think he he got about a half a mil from him maybe more uh I could be messing up the numbers. It could have been as i'm thinking about I think it was more I think it was more of like A couple million, but whatever it was He didn't share it with katroni and didn't tell katroni. He was using his name And they wired up a a restaurant where they met And papalia who was a pretty formidable force of Of criminality in his own right is not someone who backed down or or um Um You know, uh turdled in front of powerful people. He was a powerful person himself You know, he makes a comment to the katroni like Listen, i'm being honest with you. I'm not lying to you He's trying to explain Why katroni didn't realize that what papalia was doing was on the up and up And and katroni kind of sits back in in his chair and and gives like a chuckle He's like, yeah, I know you're not lying because if I find out that you're lying i'm gonna kill you I'm gonna kill you where you stand Another me guy Yeah, and this was just kind of like matter of factly and he's saying this to a guy who was a killer johnny pops was a killer and uh, uh, you know, johnny pops's reaction was then to kind of go Into I didn't mean to offend you vic he's not Pushing back on it or or getting mad at the threat. He's trying to calm the katroni down Yeah, and this was dino bravo's uncle. This was his dad's sister's husband Yeah, so he's um He's and he's well known people in montreal He's sort of like the john god here el capone of you know for for the average person And he has it great And he had two brothers that were pretty active uh, frank big frank and then joe pep Who are his younger brothers and and they were uh very active and and and prominent as well and one thing if Benny if you want to put up the the the graph of the um, yeah the family tree there I think this is kind of interesting too because um our audience will find interesting So you see katroni there at the top There's also this like ethnic dispute and uh one thing that galante and joe banano were able to do is get the Calabrese and the and the sicilians to play nice with each other So if you look at that chart there, you'll see some Collabrians like katroni veoli And some of these names are going to come up again when we talk about what's going on now Um, and then you'll also see some sicilian names in there Like, uh, risotto, which is again very very prominent name right now You'll see um, shasha there, uh, george from canada And shameless self promotion if you listen to our episode with richie cantorella He and scotton actually talked about the murder of george from canada So these sicilians and collabrians, uh Don't necessarily get along but galante and banano are able to get them to to play nice with each other But those um tensions Still still exist and they're they're going to you know, I think surface again In the 70s and then and then more more recently. So it's it's just a complicated Political environment there But you know, I don't think dino bravo necessarily has anything to do with it at that level But it just kind of paints a picture of what was going on politically in there when he was wrestling he was moonlighting as like a bodyguard For some of the some of his cousins Yeah, that collector. Yeah, that were a vicatroni's nephews um And then, you know, I think he dabbled a little bit uh Vicatroni dies in 84 He had been removed from a lot of the day-to-day For about 15 years. I think he had handed it over to paul violi Who became kind of the street boss? Violi is in a huge feud with the risottos We know that catroni at a point early in violi's reign as street boss They're aware of the danger that the risottos pose Uh, I believe the risottos that had left town at some point in the 70s. I went to venezuela. Nicola risotto did yeah Yeah, he goes to south america But uh, because he because he thinks it's a very real possibility. They're going to kill him Right, which is which is what i'm about to say. They have all these wires from 72 73 74 with vicatroni trying to recruit uh Hitters Some of them from new york to come and kill uh nick risotto um eventually The risottos win The battle of power and paul violi and a couple of his brothers are murdered in the late 70s Uh, these are these are actually the violi brothers that we're going to talk about. Um later on in the episode. Those are the sons. Yeah, it's okay no worries, um but Yeah, those were paul violi's sons who will pop up later in the episode, but uh, it doesn't look like Vicatroni would have signed off on paul cotroni on paul violi's assassination so I think that definitely says something about where katroni himself stood Uh in the mob landscape in the late 70s as he was ending out his reign Yeah, I think there was already the the machinations were in place to put george from canada as like for all intent purpose the real captain in matriol and when you say george from canada what that really means is The risottos. Yeah The risottos and then and these are v the bananos. These right these v the but bananos So it's pretty clear new york signed off on on all of that. Um, and so so cotroni had um I think he had lost some some juice, but he was still a respected guy. I mean he was still a made guy and and and um and and so dino bravo is able to Parlay that into some economic opportunities as you point out because you have to keep in mind You know in the late 70s early 80s those guys weren't making a lot of money Especially in those independent territories. So if you can moonlight you're already a wrestler You're a big tough guy, right? You know, you can you can handle yourself He's related to prominent underworld figures. And so scott points out he was moonlighting as a bodyguard and and debt collector and making a little money on the side and That's interesting because that came out later a lot of wrestlers that he worked with didn't didn't realize that until he was Killed where like he had this whole backstory like he didn't he didn't just start Getting involved with this and I had a prior history I think one of the the strands of the narrative here is that you know reading law enforcement documents related to this Reading old articles that were written about this talking to some people that were you know involved in in that environment Dino bravo had expensive tastes Yeah, this was a guy that liked Living what rick flair would talk about in his in his stand-ups about rolls roices and rolex watches and Beautiful women and you know the best nightclubs Jeff client, right? And limousine ride, right? So, uh, dino bravo Was able to live that lifestyle as a wrestler While he was moonlighting I think you can kind of combine the two incomes to to live pretty high on the hog if you will Yeah, especially once he signs with wwf then he's he's finally making some real money Which I think there was a decline in like his underworld stuff because Right, he just he didn't need he didn't need to have the time and he didn't have the time He didn't have the time right? He was that's a good point. You're touring a lot right by the late 90s uh Vince McMahon and the powers that be Or did I say late 90s? I meant it's early 90s There is a The altering of opinion from the the people that are running wwf wwe of The value that dino bravo provides to the promotion And because dino bravo was older at that point right and you know in that world It's you know out with the out with the old and in with the new He was like I think in his 40s at that point. So in 91 92 He is Fazed out involuntarily Yeah By the wwe they They cut his contract and so we don't want to work with you anymore And at that point this was in 92. I believe yeah, I think yeah He makes the decision to dive right back into the deep end of The canadian underworld that any I don't think he's um I mean, I'm sure he wasn't advertising it everywhere he went but He didn't really have a At a nine to five job at that point. I mean he he purchased some property And this is where we're to get into the cigarette smuggling Purchased a big piece of property in Champlain New York And Started to make connections on the indian reservations And this is where we're going to kind of Let people know about this this giant racket Of of cigarette smuggling which is so lucrative in the in that part of the world And I want to throw it back to jimmy now one of the things that I think we both found interesting was that Dino bravo had a pretty easy entry Into this racket because of the indian reservations in the area playing such a prominent role and the The chiefs the leaders of these indian reservations were big wrestling fans. Yeah Yeah, when dino bravo comes knocking on the tp door To do business they Come on in. Let's let's talk about wrestling. Let's talk about your matches with chief j strong bow and wahu mc daniel and Let's talk business Yeah, they were they were pretty psyched pretty psyched about that To be able to work with him and and I also want to point out something else to your point about his extravagant taste He's he's living in laval, which is the Beverly Hills of montreal, right, which is also very mafia Mafia neighborhood that's where a lot of other mafia heavyweights live So he has this really like kind of ostentatious In a home and lifestyle So when he's um unceremoniously Let go from from wwf and you know, he doesn't get any other contract offers from wcw at that time wcw We're picking up some of the the the guys that were let go from wwf like even like big names like hogan macho man They don't they don't make an offer to bravo and so he's got to figure out a way to Sustain that lifestyle and so he he reconnects with some of these underworld figures and um one of um The most lucrative rackets he gets into is is cigarette smuggling and as scott points out, right the the indian reservation guys were really psyched to work with him and uh because they were wrestling fans and another thing that's interesting to note is It's not like he invented this racket It turns out that katroni and the guys in western new york the megadino family This is something that these guys had been Involved in for a long time. So there's already kind of an infrastructure in place And then you add to the fact bravo's charisma celebrity status He's able to get himself right in the middle of it and he was really smart. He purchased that piece of property um and it's from what I could understand it was in Very close proximity to one of these indian reservations, which was uh, which served as The smuggling route and that On his Champlain new york property. He had like a packaging and repackaging like plant where a lot of the cigarettes that were um Coming from canada into the united states and then being smuggled back into canada He was working with the montreal group and then he was also working with uh A crew in the baffle mafia out of niagra falls Who who handled at that time handled all of the uh smuggling rackets for the megadinos the nicoleti crew Sonny nicoleti. It's been dead for about 10 years, but well a very um powerful member of of the buffalo group for years His dad went all the way back to the original megadino and um They are Using the champlain property as a Kind of a waystation A place where a lot of the the uh cigarettes end up after they're smuggled into the united states And then they're brought to the property in champlain either repackaged or Whatever has to be done with them and then put into the machine the smuggling machine which goes into the indian reservations And then pops out the other end In ontario You start you started new york in like iri county and then you end up in ontario Yeah, so one of the things to point out here is the economics of it. So canada at that time and Maybe the probably probably still do even the united states. That's the case now really high taxes on on cigarettes and so um What they would do was sneak the smuggle the cigarettes into the united states Uh, and as scott points out either repackage them rebrand them or whatever and then smuggle them back into canada And then a lot of times sell them on the reservations or whatever, you know, you could you could buy him Well, I think I think the uh the res rackets were Yes, they were a part of the of the cigarette smuggling infrastructure, but they also had You had yes, you had cigarettes that were being sold on the black market on the res but The res also was acting as this conduit. Yeah, so it wasn't like All the cigarettes were being smuggled We're just ending up in the reservation. No, no, that was only I think a small Yeah, yeah, they were all of them and then there were other and then there are other rackets that the At least I can speak on the buffalo end of things Uh for decades the buffalo mega dino Family has been running traditional rackets on indian reservations, which I Was unaware of until some of this but that dovetails with this big surge of cigarette smuggling in the late 80s Uh early 90s when the taxes in canada were going through the roof And it was really the probably the last point in in at least american history Where smoking was still mainstream By the late 90s it was being phased out. You know by the mid 2000s It was illegal. I mean the smoke in public places. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and the taxes keep going up. Yeah, let me just correct myself Champlain's in clinton county. It's not an errant. It's not in eerie county. I just want to okay so one thing another thing to point out here is The stakes are getting higher for a guy like dino bravo. So when he's younger You know, he's his uncle is a big-time mafioso. So he moonlights as a debt collector. Maybe a bodyguard but now He's he's directly involved in facilitating some pretty lucrative racket. So the stakes are getting higher in terms of um Let's say if things go wrong you may not be able to just say who your uncle is And get and get and your uncle's dead at this point. I mean his His his brothers are still around right frank and joe, but but vick is gone. But vick is gone um I think you also have a In terms of the the buffalo end of this You had a lot of protection either from Law enforcement, uh, you know, we We were discussing off-air and something that we should interject here that the tobacco companies themselves the the big tobacco on tobacco road in in north carolina rj reynolds, uh, william morris, uh What's what's the more the philip morris? Yeah, i want to say william. Uh, these are these are, you know, the the mcdonalds and burger king or the coke and pepsi of of that industry and they're complicit it comes out in in some, uh Uh lawsuits and and criminal Uh criminal investigations and trials in the 90s. It comes out that these the big tobacco is complicit in some of this smuggling Right and that's really interesting because especially on the the canadian side of the operation because They realize they're losing all this money through, uh, the you know the contraband cigarettes and they decide why if they're going to smuggle these cigarettes Anyhow we might as well get a piece of it because there are our cigarettes And to begin with and so they were trying to lobby the canadian government to lower the taxes and and they were unsuccessful So they they were like fuck it. We're gonna we're gonna start working with the smugglers ironically to smuggle their own cigarettes back in into canada and sell Some of these guys were actually like on payroll Yeah, yeah the mobs. Yeah, the well not the mob guys themselves But no guys that were associated to the who were answering to those mob guys were actually like had offices on tobacco road Yeah, the smugglers. Yeah part of that that that network So and then that's how you get into like maybe some of the the protection by political people and because those those political people are Bought and paid for by the tobacco industry. So back then in the 80s and 90s the There were a pair of siblings the Tavano brothers who were nephews of or sorry cousins of Lenny Nicoletti And they were the point men for the mega dino crime family in the smuggling business. They also had Uh criminal records for gambling bookmaking fraud One of the Tavanos I know moved out to vegas when this was all going on Bobby Tavano who I believe is still alive. He's 80 years old right now at one point in time. He was the Head of the GOP in Niagara in Niagara Falls a whole part of New York's uh A whole you know a little section of new york's republican party was in the hands of this convicted or eventually convicted mob associate So, you know that speaks to to uh some of the the protection that they were afforded But getting back to dino bravo in a short period of time this property in champlain Uh becomes a beehive of activity and From what I could gather was very efficient and was very um The security was was top rate And word began to spread That this is a great piece of property for all kinds of smuggling not just Cigarette smuggling right that's usually pretty common in these cases and around the same time When dino bravo was being approached by Drug dealers who want him to start smuggling cocaine for them Using this champlain property There's also Rumors innuendo speculation Circulating through the mega dino clan specifically the nicoletti crew that dino bravo was Possibly skimming off the top from the business relationship that he has with the indian reservation and the buffalo organized crime group Not sure where the montreal group plays in to that allegation And also it gets pretty murky because you know you have politicians you have corporations But as you point out you you've got the mega dino family possibly montreal But also when you look at some of that reporting they said the hell's angels were Were somehow into this network as well. Yeah, so the hell's angels played a role in it um a lot of Shady characters and We've talked about it on here quite a bit when it comes to the Reasons why people get killed in the underworld a lot of times. It's not One thing it's a combination of several things So nobody's ever been arrested for dino bravo's murder We're not positive on a motive. We have a lot of again speculation but We know that something happened in the weeks leading up to dino bravo being killed in his own mansion in laval by somebody that he led into the house and Was most likely watching a hockey game with um there was one or two seizures of contraband In montreal in a warehouse I believe the first seizure was cigarettes And the second seizure was cocaine And there was a lot of finger pointing on who was responsible or the rcmp coming in and swooping down and and uh Rating confiscating those two shipments And there's I don't I don't have any doubt that that played a role in Dino bravo being killed. I don't know How much of the pie if you're going to slice it up um rests with that One situation, but it it definitely proved as some type of Breaking point or or you know straw that broke the camel's back because Within 10 10 or 11 days. I believe he was he was killed Yeah, I want to just speak to sort of a criminological view on a couple of things you said First of all it wouldn't be uncommon for a guy to be skimming off of an operation and then it just becomes a matter of how far do you push it and then You know to what extent are you held accountable for it? But another thing that's very common is something scott mentioned, which is Once you have established A tried and true smuggling route. It's usually not long before you start smuggling other things In addition to what you started off smuggling. That's very common When we look at at at the um the underworld So most of the big Sicilian Drug lords that we think of that emerged in the 60s 70s battle of mentee guys like that All those guys started out as cigarette smugglers And once you have the the the routes in place and the infrastructure in place Then it's like well. Why not smuggle heroin too because you look at pop. Look at the two biggest uh worldwide narcos ours of our lifetime Pablo Escobar and El Chapo. Where do they get their start? It wasn't in cocaine No, they started in marijuana. Yeah, and then they graduated from smuggling and selling marijuana to smuggling and selling cocaine yeah, because once the network's in place, uh, and so The there's evidence that suggests that that's what happened with with, you know, bravo among other people was Why not smuggle cocaine as well? And and I think the reason why that's significant is um traditionally not not that cigarette smuggling is is uh, you know, uh something that doesn't Have some kind of danger to it any kind of smuggling does but once you start talking about the the drug trade Usually this the stakes go. I mean Guys start getting a lot more trigger happy I would say When you start talking about drug smuggling well and then missing drug shipments worth, you know hundreds of thousands of dollars if not millions of dollars Yeah, you know it drug Drug activity in the underworld is economy Yeah, and when money, uh pops up missing or product pops up missing It needs to be replaced And in order for the machine to keep on working so, um There's a lot of Questions that needed to be answered after this. You know bravo. Obviously didn't have the right answers to these questions It didn't look like he could run To his uncle's borgata And it doesn't look like he could he could have run to Sonny Nicoletti for for help either if You know, this is all speculation, but if the Nicoletti crew already thinks that you're skimming And the Montreal guys get mad at you for a botched cigarette or cocaine deal You don't have the the Nicoletti guys to come run to to protect you and your your uncle has been dead for 10 years. Yeah Yeah, so um, yeah to your point there was um Some some finger pointing with that bot shipment. Um, the the one side Blamed, you know bravo and said because they know they know that bravo was surveilled going to the warehouse And so they blamed him like you you were being tailed by the cops and why were you why were you, you know, you brought heat You brought you brought heat Whereas dino bravo pushed back and said listen I'm I I dropped it off and you left it there for what three four days something like that Then that that's on you if if eventually the cops Raid the place and confiscate the the contraband. So there's a lot of like finger pointing over that and I think and I don't want to disparage the the legacy of dino bravo or or make Unfounded accusations, but I know because there were two raids The one that we're talking about now about the the The product sitting there for four days was the cocaine right but there had been a another rated in that same Early 93 period where they confiscated cigarettes there started to be talk that Maybe dino had tipped off Uh The the law enforcement for for some of this Well and another again, we don't we don't know if this is connected or not, but it certainly isn't intriguing another Mobbed up cigarette smuggler in that same neighborhood was killed around the same time as dino bravo was so um It I'm not sure if it's connected, but it certainly seems suspicious and seems plausible that that that they were connected So he's in the danger zone either way. So just a little bit of the forensics on on what happened um his wife Leaves with the the daughter. This is march march 10th 1993 Yeah, and they come home after midnight around 12 30 and they discover his body and scott points out no forced entry All evidence suggests that he knew the assailant or assailants And let them in in fact he there's no like defensive posture He doesn't seem to have any defensive. He was shot from behind Yeah, but he was shot in the back of the head and he seemed to like he was sort of lounging Yeah, well, they were they were they were watching the hockey game Yeah, so he almost certainly knew not only knew these people but felt comfortable with them and that I think that's important because If you watch the dark side of the ring episode which which I highly recommend and they interview some of his colleagues Apparently dino bravo was saying to some people that he may have gotten in over his head And he was fearful that that there could be some kind of retribution And so there's some evidence that he was on guard But clearly not that night not in that situation So he trusted and he trusted the people he led into his house to watch the game with Yeah, so so in that specific case this must have been someone he was very comfortable with To let his let his guard down like that. I think I read a story where the police was speculating that Him and the killer or killers were on a couch Watching the game. He might have been in a recliner. Yeah, I think and The killer or killers got up feigning that they were going to go get something in the kitchen and came up behind him and blasted him That he didn't he never saw it coming basically no and he was shot It was pretty brutal. He was shot 11 times I think seven it took seven shots to the face and I think forward to the body or vice versa I can't remember the the forensics of it, but the reason why I'm saying a salient or a salience is In all likelihood, it seems like it was two assailants. There were there were two weapons found However, there is one theory out there that that was by design to the throw off investigators that it was It was one person. So we don't we don't know for sure, but It could be it could be either way So it's a pretty pretty brutal gangland slaying in a pretty affluent neighborhood Right. Yeah So and he's and he's you know, still a celebrity, especially in that part of the Continent part of north america. He's still a pretty big celebrity So I think it was it caught a lot of people by surprise because he was such a popular beloved Celebrity I don't think people realize how deep he had gotten himself into The underworld even if they heard rumors about his uncle or whatever that, you know That's an it can be an accident of birth, right? You can't choose who your relatives are But but this was you know, it became apparent to everyone that no He was he was neck deep in in underworld activities and I think you get perspective the further you get away from it um, I think when it first happened You know, you don't You can't contextualize it as much now that you're 30 years Removed if you if you do a google search on it A lot of stuff has been written in the last 10 to 15 years Um, a lot less was written Right when it first happened Yeah, yeah, yeah for sure. Um, so um in terms of who was who was responsible There's different theories One theory is the the uh native american or native canadians on the reservation Although a push back to that is yeah, they may be involved in this but they don't have a reputation for that kind of And they liked him and they liked him, right? So, um, then the other two Or the other three culprits could be uh, outlaw bikers are at the top of the suspect list Uh, the italians whether it was on the montreal or the or the buffalo side and then the other Possibilities just some kind of a free agent like someone else in that smuggling network That that he fucked over or they were going to fuck over him. So it's still pretty murky in terms of They're narrowing it down to who actually Pulled this off, but it was definitely a professional gangland hit. It's also interesting to You know try to tie it back into what's going on today back then it looked like Buffalo lcn Was working shoulder to shoulder with the hell's angels in a lot of this Now 30 years later If if you believe what's being put into court documents and uh, what not they're working very closely with the outlaws Um, so, you know different different group Possibly the same racket again bringing it in today This this racket still exists. I don't think it's as big of a moneymaker as it was back then but guys in buffalo guys in Ontario and cobec Are still heavily involved in cigarette smuggling Yeah, and if um, I don't know if uh, if benning can put up that picture just to Yes, I'll be up here the the the violi brothers who the the The father and the uncles were under that old Ducina under katroni Um, remember they were on the outs with the risottos and once the risottos became the hegemonic power in montreal the violi brothers and that that family left and Saw refuge in hamilton under under the protection of the magadino family and also the lupino Uh crime family in in canada and they're affiliated with the buffalo the buffalo people and This is um, you know something we've talked about on the show and scott can speak to this more But there's a lot of evidence including including wire tabs that the violi brothers are now very much active and high-ranking members of the magadino family in in western new york FBI and rc and that part of ontario. Yeah, FBI and rc and p identified dom violi who was the guy on the left in that picture um Is the underboss of the Buffalo mafia that he is the first canadian to ever hold an administrative post in a american crime family allegedly On the right is his younger brother joe. Uh, they were both Yeah, I would say highly coveted free agents at some point, um in in the 2000s in 2010s there was a kind of a fight Who was gonna claim them as their uh, as their soldiers? uh dom Was the first one to go to the buffalo magadino group and then I think there was Uh a debate about whether or not joe was going to go to the bananos Or was going to go into the magadinos and he eventually went into the magadinos I believe the the court documents Put their makings that like dom was made in 14. I think Or 14 and then joe was made in 16 Or maybe yeah and traditionally their their fathers and their uncles were members of the banano family in montreal So that's why that's why if people are I know it gets confusing But if they're wondering well, what are the bananos have to do with this? It's because historically They're they're their father and their uncles were were members of the bananos in montreal and from my sources The violi brothers right now are in charge of the buffalo mafia's cigarette smuggling Racket according to the people that I've spoken to and I I'm pretty sure there was a reference In an article written about dom violi at some point in the last five years that Alludes to the fact that he was involved in the cigarette smuggling business So if what my people in buffalo are telling me is true The uh the boyfriend and some of the social circle surrounding crystal quinn who is the uh 37 year old Stripper that ended up dead in august who was supposed to be the star witness at this big buffalo mob racketeering trial That people that she was hanging around with including her boyfriend Work for the violi's and work in in the cigarette smuggling racket within the magadino crime family and work Quite heavily on the reservation Yeah, so it's interesting that this doesn't seem to be like some kind of archaic Racket that this is still very much a lucrative Yeah And and I guess with you know, it doesn't surprise me with the taxes on cigarettes in in the united states and in canada Being so high. It doesn't surprise me I mean, I I don't think we have time to get into it But there there is another interesting case study if people want to look up on their own johnny k9 was another wrestling superstar who was one of these guys who was Kind of crossed over with the underworld, you know what you need special wrestling Let's let's tease this out because I think we should do a whole episode At some point between now, let's say the end of the year On johnny k9 and we yeah, that's a good idea. We could center it around satan's choice Yeah, yeah, which is the what? Well, it was at one point The equivalent of the hell's angels in canada with satan's choice Um I'm sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead. No, I believe satan's choice eventually patched over to the hell's angels um I could be wrong. Yeah, i'm not sure but johnny k9 is another interesting Case study. I think that's smart. Let's hold off on that and that also gives me an opportunity to give a shout out to Grappling with canada. That's a podcast where they talk about uh, you know the history of of wrestling and and um, canadian wrestlers So grappling with canada as a podcast you should check out and we try to get have um, andy on this on this episode But just scheduling conflict. So i'll reach out to him again And maybe we'll get him back and then we can do a just a johnny k9 episode because yeah, well You're right. That deserves its own kind of discussion and i'm i'm kind of fascinated by biker politics in canada in the 70s and 80s and how it was Related or connected to what was going on in the united states with both the hell's angels and the outlaws growing at you know in at rapid clips And satan's choice was eventually patched over to the hell's angels Bernie the frog who i believe was the founder and one of the more more legendary canadian outlaws of all time not outlaws in terms of The member of the outlaws biker club, but a very notorious iconic criminal in the in the history of of canada was Somebody that was being if my memory serves and we'll go into this in the episode thunny barger was for years pressuring bernie the frog To patch over and he was very nationalistic He did not want to patch over to an american A club and then eventually did And i think there was some meeting between bernie and sunny barger At that point so and that's the club that johnny canine was was involved in Yeah, and so um and then even shameless self-promotion We just by the time you watch this our episode on the banditos Banditos will be available and they their name they come up in that canadian stuff too. So And it's complicated because you have the different provinces in canada. Sometimes we're talking about cobec sometimes ontario Sometimes british columbia. So um, yeah, I would uh, I would uh, yeah, let's hold off on that And then we'll do we'll give johnny canine his own episode. I think it's uh, and just as we wrap up just give people a little um Update of what's going on in that buffalo racketeering trial the prosecutors right now are Trying to move the the the trial from buffalo. There's so Shook or people That are involved in this case right now and it's a case that's been percolating for two years um Are worried that more witness intimidation uh juror intimidation Possible suspicious deaths are gonna happen. Like I said, you've had two People directly tied to this case a star witness and then an unindicted co-conspirator who was a new york supreme court judge Then you had a third person that ended up uh dead We're not positive it was connected, but it it happened in the hours leading up to the indictment um, the indictment got dropped Like at eight o'clock in the morning at like two o'clock that same morning This guy that had some ties into some of the buffalo drug world uh ended up dying under very strange circumstances at a Funeral home that he was the the director of and then a couple hours later the first uh to drop in this case drops and and We should mention this that Fitting at the defense table next to peter dracey jr. At this trial the nephew of the reputed don of buffalo Um, mafied on a buffalo will be a retired dea agent. Uh, joe banji avani Who's accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bribes to protect buffalo mob? drug operations and he was indicted in bribery at like nine o'clock he was like november sixth and Six hours before that this guy ends up dead so three, you know, three three people that lot that are no longer with us uh A lot of them have been looked at as suicides Two of them have been ruled suicides the one that I just mentioned at the funeral home and then the new york supreme court Judge was ruled a suicide We don't know about crystal quinn But the prosecutors want to move the trial from buffalo to rochester And that's being considered by the city judge right now And in their motion to get it moved they Reference the outlaws the motorcycle club that the buffalo mob is most connected to right now as you know as a lever of That that can be maybe pulled or utilized By people that that are sympathetic to jeracy jr They reference that some of these outlaws Have been seen at trials in the eerie county, which is where buffalo is, you know the buffalo media reported that. Yeah, that that they do like research or recognizance As well as showing up there for intimidation purposes So we should see a lot of outlaws The law a lot of outlaws From buffalo are employed at ferro's strip club jeracy jr's strip club including the international president John ermine who goes by the nickname tommy. Oh And tommy. Oh Lat will end on this tommy. Oh the boss of the outlaws Wrote to the judge in this racketeering case Telling the judge that hey, peter. Tracy's a good guy. You shouldn't keep him without bond. You should give him bond Hmm. This is coming from it's just I guess if that's that's interesting. I didn't know that Well, I don't know what the purpose of that really is that that jeracy jr has your And he's not just an employee at the strip club. He is the manager of the strip club He used to be the head of security. Now he runs the whole club Yeah, tommy. Oh does I don't really know what Uh recruiting tommy. Oh to write a letter of sympathy to the judge is really going to do for you Yeah, that's this kind of bizarre But that's where we are right now with that case, you know, keep on checking with og pod We'll give you some more quick hitters the more news that comes out of it and then games report. Obviously Uh, we have an identity we have an identity topic Yeah, I mean even the local buffalo medias. They're really digging in too. I mean in Uh, bernie to his credit is broken some of the stories He actually published it on gangster report before the local buffalo media Um got to it, but they've been they've been digging in on it too And I'm not I'm not naming the boyfriend of crystal quinn I know his name law enforcement knows his name Um, I'm not going to name him until his name is put into uh the public record either, uh with via an arrest or a A summons or or a subpoena, but um We'll keep you updated with him. I've heard that at least as of a couple weeks ago. He was dodging A police interview. He was with crystal quinn when she died crystal quinn. We should point out We know how she died. We don't know if it was a voluntary ingestion of a fentanyl pill Or if she succumbed to her previous issues with Uh substance abuse and just took a pill that was laced with fentanyl and died of an accidental overdose But we know what killed her was what they call an incredible hulk pill Which is a green xanax bar laced with fentanyl We don't know If she took it voluntarily or not and the fbi is looking into her boyfriend as well as The owner of the house they were at I can't name him because he's in the press simon gogalak Who right now is uh in custody facing a drug and weapons charge drug and weapons indictment, but uh allegedly both gogalak and The boyfriend have some affiliation um To baffle organized crime in the cigarette smuggling business um, so yeah, I mean uh keep checking gangsta reports scott will report on it and um That's a pretty hot hot topic now and um an r.i.p. dino bravo yeah, yeah, and um, and this was um A fun episode and uh kind of a just trying to find my words here because it's uh You know debbie downer dino bravo gets killed. We're talking about suicides and Incredible hulk fentanyl pills I'm trying to figure out a way to finish this on a lighter note, but i'm struggling but I mean i'm i'm still a big fan of wrestling. I don't watch it any any longer, but uh probably up until like the early 2000s I I still like to go back and revisit That's why you those those uh matches and those uh storylines. That's why youtube's so great I mean both jimmy and i we can sit there for hours and be pulling up old wrestling matches from the 80s Yeah, yeah, you can keep my keep my interest for way longer than i'm uh Uh way longer than i want to admit Yeah, no for sure. Yeah, I I lost interest around the early 2000s, but I still I still have uh fondness for the everything But before that so well, we appreciate your time and and listening and and we'll uh keep on uh bringing you more content Please follow us on social media subscribe to our channel and we'll talk to you soon. I'm jimmy buchelado scott bernstein We're out